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The Old Roman Catholic Church The Old Roman Catholic Church, a non-Papal, Catholic ecclesial body, descends from the Ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands (The Catholic Old Diocese of Utrecht) and traces its Apostolic Succession from the See of Utrecht. The Low Countries received Christianity in the 7th Century through the endeavors of the English missionary, St. Willibrord and his companions. Because of the labors of these early missionaries and those of St. Boniface, Apostle of Utrecht, Catholicism grew and flourished in the Low Countries.
In the year 1145, at the request of the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad III, Blessed Pope Eugene III granted the See of Utrecht the right of election of its own bishops. The Fourth Council of the Lateran confirmed this grant in 1215. In 1520, Pope Leo X in the Bull, Debitum Pastoralis, granted to the See of Utrecht and its 57th Bishop, Phillip of Burgundy, the right of adjudication of its own affairs without reference to the tribunals of the Holy See. The Theological Faculties of Paris and the Louvain, in 1717, verified this privilege, known as the Leonine Privilege. Both of these grants have been exercised by the See of Utrecht from the time of their promulgation and were of extreme importance during the period of the Counter Reformation when the ultramontane party questioned the rights of the See of Utrecht. In spite of the attempts of the Counter Reformers during that difficult period to suppress it, the See of Utrecht elected successive prelates who were consecrated by Bishop Dominique Marie Varlet, Bishop of Babylon-in partibus who was then resident in Utrecht. The difficulties resulting from the activities of the Counter Reformers caused the Ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands to become an autonomous part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. In response to requests from English Catholics for a non-Papal Catholic presence in the United Kingdom, Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht consecrated the Most Reverend Arnold Harris Mathew, a retired Roman Catholic priest, as Regionary Bishop for England, on April 28, 1908. This was an especially significant development, leading to an Old Roman Catholic presence in North America only six years later. |
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